BURNES Alexandre Voyages de l’embouchure de l’Indus à Lahore, Caboul, Balkh et à Boukhara ; et retour par la Perse pendant les années 1831, 1832 et 1833. Traduits par J.-B.-B. Eyriès.

Chadenat, 4227.

First French edition.

The translation was made by the geographer Jean-Baptiste Eyries. This edition of the diplomatic travels in Central Asia by Alexander Burnes (1805-1841), officer of the East India Company and British explorer, contains valuable information on Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkestan and Uzbekistan. Burnes has shown a major interest in history and its vestiges as well as in politics, to which he naturally associates the human element. He also describes the Asian customs. The missions were a great opportunity for advanced research in the field of geology, the search for mineral resources, the study of agricultural resources, the navigability of rivers, irrigation, physical and human geography, chemistry, even alchemy, which fascinates the Afghans (Nadine Andre, Alexander Burnes, un héritier des Lumières écossaises dans le sous-continent indien a l’âge des reformes in Études écossaises, 14, 2001). At the end of volume III, the authors’s Observations on the collections of bacterial medal and others can be found (pp. 369-389).

Burnes travel stories, first published in London in 1834, were a great editiorial succes ans still are. The atlas is complete with 11 beautiful lithographies, including a representation of the monumental Buddhas of Bamyan destroyed by the Taliban in 2001, and a large folding map. The first plate, a beautiful portrait, is the author himself dressed as a Bokharra.

Text slightly foxed, in the volume three two corners torn not affecting text (pages 185-188). Else a beautiful and complete copy.